The analysis conducted by Greenpeace Australia Pacific has described the majority of net-zero commitments made by major local companies as a “corporate greenwash”, with giants such as Qantas and AGL among the groups that have targets “without any commitment to reduce their use and production of fossil fuels”.
While 51 per cent of Australia’s 80 top-emitting ASX 200 companies have net-zero or carbon-neutral targets in place, just 16 have committed to reducing emissions from their operations.
“Carbon offset schemes enable companies like AGL, Australia’s biggest corporate climate polluter, Santos and Qantas to make impressive-sounding net-zero emissions and carbon neutral claims while doing nothing to reduce dangerous emissions from their use and production of fossil fuels,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific’s head of research and investigations, Dr Nikola Čašule, said.
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“A primary test of credibility is a commitment to reduce emissions from business operations by switching to 100 per cent renewable electricity, but almost two thirds of companies in the ASX200 with net zero emissions targets do not pass the renewable test.
“While protecting and restoring our rapidly declining forests is hugely important in its own right, land-based carbon offsets such as tree planting schemes cannot repair the climate damage caused by burning coal, oil and gas.
“Australian companies need to establish near-term 100 per cent renewable electricity targets and phase out the use of fossil fuels, rather than relying on dodgy offsets.”
Neil Griffiths
Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.
Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.
